Religion is the cause of more wars than anything else?

Does it?

I think the religion on the whole breeds less tolerance, but I’m not sure it really is the cause of wars, people naturally seem to want conflict and religion is just a natural cause.

Anything that you can unconditionally believe in as an absolute truth is asking for trouble.  Especially when there are other people that unconditionally believe in their absolute truth that is contradictory to yours.

As a defiant atheist I find it hard to comprehend the concept of unconditionally belief, especially in a way that would make me violent enough to fight my neighbour.

Most religions in my limited opinion teach of tolerance and of peacefulness, but from the dawn of time those concepts seem to have been ignored when it comes to actual disagreements on the religion itself.

From the bible, “Thou shalt not kill”, from the Qur’an “And do not take any human being’s life – that God willed to be sacred”.  Unfortunately my lack of familiarity with other religions means I do not have quotes, but most religions seem to follow this premise.

So why, with these very basic concepts is the world determined to kill each other?

Is it religion or is religion just an excuse for violent people to be more violent?

This brings me to my second point.  Why do people feel that being religious, or in this area, attending church, make them immune from basic human courtesy?

I see so many people on a day to day basis that would sooner tread on a fallen person than offer them a hand up, but decide they are good people because they went to the church service on Sunday.

At least I am not the only person to notice this, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7497411.stm

I wonder some days whether the various religious leaders should all get together and cancel religion.  Make people responsible for their own actions rather than following the teachings, but this would never work.

Some people require the moral compass.  Overall (once again from my limited knowledge) these teachings provide a good solid basis as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad.  But is that moral compass worth all the killing?

Reminissing

Arrrrghhhh, I remember when……. of course you do!

For reasons that I can’t fathom I have taken to reading the comments people leave on news stories.  99% of them seem hell bent on how it used to be, not how it is now.

• For gas prices, “I remember when it was only $1 a gallon, what happened?”
• For youth culture, “In my day the teenagers were so much better behaved”
• For driving, “People used to drive far more courteously”
• For food, “Where is the fresh food we used to have, everything is packets?”
• For cameras, “It only used to cost $3 to develop a film”

Why is it people seem determined that things should stay the same while still getting better?

Older people always complain about the younger generation, when I was young it was loud music, my grandfather hated it!  For food, you still have all the fresh produce that you’d have in the corner store, but now you have a huge megamart with fruit from the other side of the planet and products you can keep in the cupboard for a rainy day.

There is inflation, things cost more, but so do salaries.  People complain that everything has gone up in prices without realizing that they now earn so much more.

I wish people would stop looking back at the world through rose coloured glasses.  They should move with the times, here are a couple of things that have changed in peoples favour, that they seem to have forgotten.

• Telephony, it used to cost dollars a minute to talk long distance or around the world, now it is pennys.
• Computers are so fast that people take for granted that their cell phone now has more processing power than the first computers.
• Cars travel faster with less fatal accidents thanks to seat belts and airbags.
• Air travel is cheap enough that you can take a 2 week holiday on the other side of the planet, it used to take months just to get there.

The world moves on…. some people need to get over that.

Environmental Automotive

The environment and gas prices seem to be a hot topic at the moment, all around the world.  Here in the US fuel has quadrupled in price in the last 10 years, but the style of cars hasn’t changed that much.

There appear to be two different, almost fascist views about this energy.  There are the people who have decided that gas guzzling trucks are evil, all people should buy 800cc toy cars.  They undoubtedly use less fuel, but, that is only “per person”, not per application.

The opposite argument is “I like my big truck, screw the environment, I need it”, which is also true.  Trying to move around building supplies or furniture in a little car is just impractical so having that truck is a must.

What I find odd is the way neither of these crowds seem to see the rational down the middle approach.  I own a truck, it does about 17mpg on a good day, but at least once a week I have to haul something that I couldn’t do with a car.

My wife on the other hand drives a station wagon (estate car), it does 30+mpg and is perfect for driving around in.  I would like a 3rd car so I don’t have to drive around the truck all the time, but there is a lot of $4 gallons of fuel that I can get for the extra car payment.

It does seem a ludicrous that people in cities have pickup trucks, and people on farms expected to use Honda civics.  There is an application for all vehicles out there.

One of my big complaints though is the lack of evolution to environmentally more viable solutions.  I need my truck, and the truck needs to pull 8000lbs for the caravan, currently that requires a 5.3 litre engine.  Where is the hybrid for the truck so I can do the same activity with a 3 litre engine.  Flex fuel is an option but you sacrifice power because of the low octane.

Since people love there cars so much I think they should mandate a maximum size and efficiency for vehicles in cities, but outside the congestion shouldn’t matter.

And before anyone comments that that penalizes families, it might for a few who could get exceptions.  MOST families are 2 adults, 2 kids, maybe 3 kids and they can fit in a regular sedan.  A minivan is NOT needed for most of them, it is a convenience that people expect now.  For the families that have more kids than that should get an exception.

As for kids in cars, don’t get me started about how the kids don’t need a DVD screen each for entertainment, just because the parents don’t want to entertain the kids they waste 1 or 2 mpg in electrical gadgets!